Major study of a formidable Scottish monarch, son of Robert the Bruce.

This is the first in-depth study of four decades of crucially formative Scottish history. David II (1329-71), son of the hero King of Scots, Robert Bruce (1306-29), has suffered a harsh historical press, condemned as a disastrous general, a womaniser and a sympathiser with Scotlandís Ďauld enemyí, England.

Bringing together evidence from Scotland, England and France, this study offers a different view: that of a child King who survived usurpation, English invasion, exile in France and eleven years of English captivity after defeat in battle in 1326 to emerge as a formidable ruler of Scotland. Learning from Philip VI of France and Edward III of England in turn, David became the charismatic patron of a vibrant court focused on the arts of chivalry: had he lived longer, Scotlandís political landscape and national outlook might have been very different to that which emerged under his successors, the Stewart Kings. But Davidís was also a reign of internal tensions fuelled by his increasingly desperate efforts to determine the royal succession, overawe great magnates like his heir presumptive, Robert the Steward, and persuade his subjects of the need for closer relations with England after sixty years of war.

Michael Penman is Lecturer in the Department of History, University if Stirling